Feature layers

A feature layer is a grouping of similar geographic features, for example, buildings, parcels, cities, roads, and earthquake epicenters. Features can be points, lines, or polygons (areas). Feature layers are most appropriate for visualizing data on top of basemaps. You can set properties for feature layers—such as style, transparency, visible range, refresh interval, and labels—that control how the layer appears in the map. Using a feature layer, you can view, edit, analyze, and run queries against features and their attributes.

Each type of feature layer meets a different need and, therefore, has slightly different functionality. For a comparison of functionality available with each type of feature layer, see Feature layer functionality.

For information on Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) features, see OGC.

Layers in feature layers

Each feature layer item can contain one or more layers. These layers (also called sublayers) can each store different geometry types; for example, a parks feature layer item can contain a point layer representing trees, a line layer representing trails, and a polygon layer representing park buildings.

Sublayers can also represent different types of data, such as a catalog layer or oriented imagery layer.

There are some settings, such as enabling attachments, that are always set on the sublayer. Other settings, such as metadata, can be different for a sublayer than for the feature layer item.

You can add sublayers individually to a map if you do not need every layer in the feature layer item. The exception to this is catalog layers—you cannot add them to a map. Because catalog layers are used to provide access to other data, they cannot be viewed on the Visualization tab in the feature layer's item page, and they are not included in hosted feature layer views.

Hosted feature layers

Hosted feature layers are feature services for which feature data is hosted by, or stored in, one of two system-maintained data stores.

You can think of the layer, service, and its data as a single entity. When you create a hosted feature layer, the data is copied into one of the system managed data stores. When the owner of the hosted feature layer or an administrator deletes a hosted feature layer, the service and data are also deleted.

Hosted feature layers are created when you publish a feature layer to ArcGIS Enterprise from ArcGIS Pro or from files in the portal.

ArcGIS Server feature layers

If you have access to feature services running on a stand-alone or federated ArcGIS Server site, you can use these ArcGIS Server feature services as layers in your organization. These layers are similar to hosted feature layers with the following differences:

• The data is not copied into a system-maintained data store; it stays in the data source you registered with the ArcGIS Server site. The exception to this is if you create a snapshot when publishing data from a cloud data warehouse; in that case, data is copied to a system-maintained data store.
• If the source data is from a cloud data warehouse, you cannot enable editing on the ArcGIS Server feature layer.
• Data is not deleted when you delete an ArcGIS Server feature layer. Again, the exception is data snapshots from cloud data warehouses.
• Functionality available in the portal is different for ArcGIS Server feature layers than for hosted feature layers.

When you publish a feature layer (feature service) to a federated ArcGIS Server site, it is automatically added as a feature layer to your organization. If you want to work with a feature service from a stand-alone ArcGIS Server site, you can add it to your organization as an item. This allows you to reference the REST endpoint (URL) of the service and use the layer in maps and apps while leaving the data stored in the data sources you registered with the ArcGIS Server site. You can also add ArcGIS Server feature layers to Map Viewer or add them to Map Viewer Classic.

Caution:

An ArcGIS Server feature layer and its associated map image layer are dependent items because the two items reference a map service with feature access enabled. That means that when you share the map image layer item, the underlying map service and feature service are accessible to the same audience, even if you did not share the feature layer item with that audience. However, the reverse is not true; if you share the feature layer item, you must also share the map image layer to the same audience. If you do not, users cannot access the feature layer item.

Layers in an ArcGIS Server map or feature service

You can add individual layers in a map service or feature service as an item or to a map in Map Viewer or Map Viewer Classic. This allows you to use a single layer in the service in a map or app instead of having to use all the layers in the service.

For example, if you have access to an ArcGIS Server map service that contains a roads layer, a buildings layer, and a railroads layer, but you only need to access the roads, you can add the roads layer as an item (recommended if you need to provide credentials to access the service) or directly to a map. To do this, you need to copy the roads layer's URL from the REST endpoint of the map service. The URL for a map service's REST endpoint is in the format https://<server>.<domain>/server/rest/services/<service_name>/MapServer. A link for each layer in the service is listed in the Layers section of this page. Click the link for the layer you want to use. Copy the URL of the page that opens to obtain the layer's URL.

Note:

Feature layers created from a layer in a map service are read-only; you cannot enable editing on them.

Feature collections

Feature collection items are a subset of feature layers with focused and limited functionality. They are derived from other data sources, such as when you save a map notes layer or .csv file in Map Viewer Classic. When you save these map layers as their own items, the items appear as new, read-only feature layers in My content that you can share with others and add to multiple maps.

Feature collections can also be exported from hosted feature layers that allow data exports. However, feature collections support limited styles and cannot be used in Map Viewer.

Streaming feature layers

Streaming feature layers are feature layers created from an ArcGIS GeoEvent Server stream service. They are useful for visualizing real-time data feeds that have high volumes of data or that have data that changes at unknown intervals. For example, a fleet of vehicles might be transmitting their location, and the current location of the vehicles needs to be continuously monitored. You can use streaming controls when you add a streaming feature layer to Map Viewer or Map Viewer Classic.

Streaming feature layers can be identified by their icon in the content page.

Streaming feature layers connect to an ArcGIS Server stream service using HTML5 WebSockets. Most modern browsers support WebSockets.

Feature layer functionality

The following sections list how to create each type of feature layer and compare functionality available with each type in Map Viewer Classic, Map Viewer, Scene Viewer, and the item page.

Publishing methods

The following list describes how you create each type of feature layer in an ArcGIS Enterprise portal:

• Hosted feature layer—Add an item to the portal and publish, publish from ArcGIS Pro, create an empty hosted feature layer from a template or an existing feature layer, or define the schema for an empty hosted feature layer. See Publish hosted feature layers for more information.
• ArcGIS Server feature layer—Publish from ArcGIS Pro to a federated ArcGIS Server site, publish from ArcGIS Pro to a stand-alone ArcGIS Server site and add the service to your organization, or publish from data store items in the portal.
• Feature collection—Add a .csv file, shapefile, or map notes to Map Viewer Classic and save the layer or export data from a hosted feature layer to a feature collection.

Map Viewer Classic

All feature layer items can be added to Map Viewer Classic (formerly known as Map Viewer), but the available functionality may differ slightly. The following table compares feature layer functionality in Map Viewer Classic:

Functionality	Hosted feature layer	ArcGIS Server feature layer	Feature collection
Edit (if editing is enabled on the layer)	Yes	Yes	Not applicable; you cannot enable editing on feature collection items
Add to Map Viewer Classic with full editing control	Yes	Yes	No
Change style, set transparency, and set visible range	Yes	Yes	Yes
Define labels	Yes	Yes	Yes, but not supported for map notes
Set refresh interval	Yes	Yes	No
Configure pop-ups	Yes	Yes	Yes
Apply filters	Yes, in Map Viewer Classic	Yes, in Map Viewer Classic	No
Copy and save as a new layer	Yes	Yes	No
Use standard feature analysis tools	Yes	Yes	Yes
Calculate fields in the attribute table	Yes	No	No
Add fields to and delete fields from the attribute table	Yes	No	No
Display features aggregated in bins	No	No	No

Map Viewer

At this time, you can add a subset of feature layer types to Map Viewer. The available functionality for each layer type may differ slightly. The following table compares feature layer functionality in Map Viewer:

Functionality	Hosted feature layer	ArcGIS Server feature layer
Edit (if editing is enabled on the layer)	Yes	Yes
Add to map with full editing control	No	No
Change style, set transparency, and set visible range	Yes	Yes
Define labels	Yes	Yes
Set refresh interval	No	No
Configure pop-ups	Yes	Yes
Apply filters	Yes	Yes
Duplicate and save as a new layer	Yes	Yes
Create group layers	Yes	Yes
Use standard feature analysis tools	No	No
Calculate fields in the attribute table	Yes	No
Add fields to and delete fields from the attribute table	Yes	No
Display features aggregated in bins	No	No

Scene Viewer

You can add the following types of feature layers to Scene Viewer:

• Hosted feature layer
• ArcGIS Server feature layer

Each layer can contain an unlimited number of features.

Item page

Many of the settings and details you configure for feature layers are the same for all feature layers and for portal items in general, such as setting tags and categories, setting a summary and description, enabling delete protection, and setting an extent. Settings and details that are different across feature layers are listed in the following table:

Functionality	Hosted feature layer	ArcGIS Server feature layer	Feature collection
Publish other layers from	Yes	No	Yes, a hosted feature layer
Create views from	Yes	You cannot create views from the feature layer in the portal, but the equivalent workflow is to publish multiple feature layers from the same data in ArcGIS Pro.	No
Define view areas on the Visualization tab	Yes	Not applicable	Not applicable
Export data from	Yes	No	No
Add and view metadata	Yes	Yes	Yes
Enable attachments	Yes	You cannot enable attachments on the layer in the portal. However, you can enable attachments on the source data before publishing the feature layer.	No
Overwrite the layer	Yes	You cannot overwrite the layer in the portal. However, you can overwrite from ArcGIS Pro.	No
Append data	Yes You can also use the Append geoprocessing tool in ArcGIS Pro.	You cannot append to the layer in the portal. However, because the data resides in the ArcGIS Server site's registered data store, you can append to the source data.	No
Calculate field contents on the Data tab	Yes	No	No
Add or delete fields on the Data tab	Yes	No	No
Define attribute lists and ranges	Yes	No; you can view existing lists and ranges but not add or delete them on the Data tab.	No
Add field descriptions and value types	Yes	No	No
Enable or disable unique constraint on columns	Yes	No	No
Edit nonspatial field values on the Data tab	Yes	Yes	No
Alter field properties including display name (title), description, field value type, and whether edits are allowed for a field	Yes	No	Can edit display name, description, and field value type but not the other field properties.
Apply filters on the Visualization tab	Yes	Yes	No
Modify settings for editing	Yes	Yes	No
Enable sync for offline use	Yes	Yes	No* *Sketch layers and map notes layers saved as part of a web map are automatically enabled for offline use. Other feature collection layers or layer items do not support offline use.
Track edits	Yes	You cannot enable editor tracking in the portal. However, you can enable editor tracking on the source data from ArcGIS Pro.	No
Control whether editable layers can be shared with everyone (public)	Yes	No	No
Update details, data, and visualization configuration for individual sublayers	Yes	Yes	No